Personal Retreat
During your coronavirus homestay, conducting your own personal retreat is a wonderful way to make the most of this gift of time. If you are really lucky and live alone, it's a magical opportunity to focus on you, you, you!
Conducting a personal retreat is a great way to ensure we get to the end of our homestay feeling fabbo! Imagine when you finally are able to socialize again - your friends will be happy to see you looking so refreshed and vital. They may even be a bit envious if they spent their homestay watching TV and eating chips and chocolate!
If you have a family/significant other to manoeuvre around it may not be so simple, but it can still be done! Include them in your activities where possible, or structure your time around their activities.
Personal Retreat Ideas
Your personal retreat needs to leave you feeling relaxed, refreshed and pampered. Top of the list is something you may not normally make time for, but will have a huge impact on your life: Meditation, see the benefits here , exercise, here are some ways to have fun exercising but they may need tweaking during our social distancing days. You can still walk, run, bicycle or hit Youtube for pilates, yoga, cardio etc. Jane Fonda is apparently revisiting her classic workout programs so if she can do it - we can do it!
Pampering "external you" on your personal retreat
Once you have exercised and meditated, pamper your skin, nails and hair. While we don't have access to salons, we need to rely on ourselves. Go through your bathroom cupboards and find all those treatments you've forgotten you bought and put them to good use!
If you're a regular at a nail salon, this would be a good opportunity to give your nails a break from chemicals. Cut them short (if you dare!) and treat them to a hardener or just a top coat. Life is definitely easier with short nails!
It won't be quite the same as you would experience in a salon, but don't forget your pedicure! If you have children or live with someone who's willing, you could take it in turns to give each other a foot massage...bliss! Why stop at the feet? Your whole body is probably crying out to be massaged and pampered - if you can talk someone into a full body massage - go for it!
Pampering "internal you" on your personal retreat
So you have exercised and meditated and your skin, nails and hair are glowing with good grooming from your tender ministrations. It's time to turn your attention to your innards.
The inner you has already had some attention with your meditation, but another idea which would be of benefit is journaling. Putting your thoughts on paper can be very therapeutic and give the future you a great insight into your thoughts and feelings.
The inner physical you could also do with some pampering. Feed your body with super nutritious food to continue this love-in with yourself (not in a bad way). Your body will thank you for providing it with great nutrition and you will feel wonderful inside and out!
If you have some bad eating habits and you swap them for good ones, I promise you will find that you crave good, healthy food, and the more good food you eat - the more you crave it. Indulging in the odd treat isn't so bad when you are habitually eating well, so load up on fruits and veggies.
Don't forget the rest of you!
While all this pampering is going on, remember your other senses - smell, hearing and sight:
- Delight your olfactory sense with aromatherapy, fragrant flowers or linen spray.
- If you love the sound of silence go ahead and indulge if possible - if that's difficult in your situation play some soothing music - classical can be wonderful - but make it something you love so you feel pampered
- If (like me) you have some beautiful coffee table books that you rarely have time to read or look at - now is your chance! Promise yourself a certain amount of time to indulge your sense of sight. Maybe you have a stunning view that you never have time to appreciate. How long has it been since you pulled out Grandma's photos - or your own - for an amble down memory lane?
A Personal Retreat - because you deserve it
If you are a part of a busy family you may think a personal retreat is out of the question, but it doesn't have to be done all in one day. Try to find snippets of time for a face mask or your favourite comfy chair and a stack of magazines. Of course, all in one day would be fab if you can.
Also, don't lose sight of the fact that this is something that can be shared and still give you wonderful benefits - it could even deepen a relationship for you.
However you conduct your personal retreat, I hope you do it because you deserve it. Simple things that make us happy are more important now than ever before. Love yourself and treat yourself to some pampering as soon as possible - your beautiful, relaxed and rejuvenated energy will be a gift to those around you, and you never know when this opportunity will present itself again.
